Guidelines on RP Events for the Society

Hello all! This is a set of guidelines to give everyone idea of how we're going to be handling the "official" RP events for the Fillorean Society. This has no impact on interpersonal RP you do or stories/events you arrange with other people. This is only for the official guild events similar to the meeting event that concluded on 4/1/2014.

Types of EventsThe leadership has decided that there will now be three "styles" of event. This is in an effort to make sure that plots move forward quickly, everyone gets an opportunity to let their character shine, and to make sure that the people organizing the events don't go totally insane.

Event Type 1 - The solo event/Fanfic EventThis concept was suggested by Brucil and I must say I think it is a pretty revolutionary one that will really help us out in the RP department. All too often it becomes difficult for everyone to coordinate schedules to organize an event or it becomes overly burdensome on the DMs (the officers) to continuously organize events. Even with 4 of us rotating on a weekly schedule it can get draining. This event will alleviate a lot of that and provide a unique opportunity for skilled roleplayers to showcase their character.

The solo RP event will consist of a selected operative taking on a mission by themselves and then writing a narrative story that details the event, what happened, and what the outcome was. There will be limited involvement from the officers and DMs other than to provide the basic mission parameters and then we will have final editorial authority to approve the ultimate writing, but the bulk of portraying the event will fall to the operative assigned who must write a story or fanfic that details what they did, what happened, who they encountered. It's basically a longer, more involved version of the mission summaries that we post in the guild background.

Generally speaking, the officers will select people for these events, but if you have something in mind for a solo RP event never hesitate to contact an officer with the idea. We're generally pretty open, but that means you also need to be prepared to have us shut you down, sometimes without an explanation. You must remember that these events will be official FS canon material so if your event may conflict with something planned down the road, the leadership may can the event idea but not give a specific reason to avoid spoiling the plot.

Event Type 2 - Forum RPThis is pretty self-explanatory, but I've decided to make this an official style. Forum RP is going to be used for what, in game, might be boring or impossible to achieve events. All too often in RP, especially with meetings or politicking style events, a group of people just stands around in a place and talks. This might be ok for some guilds, but the FS aspires to a higher ideal for the standard of events it has. That's why we've decided to relegate those types of events to forum RP. It allows us to give those events the attention they deserve without requiring people to stand around for hours, sometimes silently, while other people talk.

It also gives the guild the opportunity to do events that might not be able to take place in game. For example, there may come some time where the Society needs/wants to do an event on Korriban, but the game mechanics wouldn't allow us to do it. Rather than trying to force it in game, it'd be much easier for us to just have the event take place on the forums. These events will be more freeform, where the action is progressed along by the DM. The meeting event we had that concluded on 4/1/2014 was a good example of how this event will progress. The DM will make a post, people will have several hours in which to respond, and then the next event post will happen.

Event Type 3 - The Action EventOne thing that forum RP isn't especially good at is full encompassing action events that involve movement and visiting various locations. It quickly becomes confusing to try and figure out who is where and who is fighting whom, etc. These style of events are going to take place in the game world as often as possible, and they're going to have a standard organization.

In order to promote smooth running events, each event will be headed by a DM (one of the officers) that is going to portray npcs, conduct rolls, provide mission goals, and write mission summaries for eventual inclusion in the guild background. Each event will also have a mission leader (senior operative and up) that is going to be in charge of a team (3-5 operative level members and up). The mission leader will be responsible for making sure everyone in the event knows where they're going, supposed to be, and also helps drive the RP along during the event. If there is a lull or the plot needs advanced it is the mission leaders job to make sure that thing gets done. It is also there job to make sure that the event members are progressing towards their goal. The DM's roll is NOT to police what's going on, but rather to react and oversee interactions between the team and the mission NPCs, not to make sure people are where they're supposed to be. The mission leader is also responsible for putting together a mission team of operatives. Currently this isn't much of an issue as we only have a small pool to pick from, but later it will allow mission leaders to pick operatives of certain skill sets for certain missions. Finally, it is the team member's responsibility to just RP well, show up on time for the event, and, hopefully, have a good time.

Undoubtedly there may be conflicts, disagreements, and other assorted problems with these style of events and this is generally how they should be handled. If a team member has a complaint you need to whisper it to your team leader who can then either handle it or forward it to the DM. If the team leader has a complaint they need to whisper the DM. There shouldn't be people complaining in group chat, guild chat, etc. about what's happening in the event. That should all be handled privately so that it doesn't interrupt the flow of the event.

As an addition to this, we're going to need to start collecting "character data" on what characters have what proficiencies and decide upon an agreed method for calculating "rolls" during events. That will take place in a separate thread and when we've reached an agreement amongst the membership will be placed here.

Alright, sorry for the wall of text there but I want everyone to be on the same page when it comes to this stuff. Have fun and RP well!

_________________"We're not bangin' rocks together here, we know how to run a guild."